IMMIGRATION: State laws also benefit DACA recipients

I wrote a story for Sunday'sĀ paper about the two-year anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama administration program that allows hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants temporary protection from deportation.

I chatted with six young immigrants from the Inland area whose lives improved in some way after receiving DACA approval.

The enactment of several state laws and policies over the past few years also benefited them.

A law that went into effect in January 2013 allowed undocumented-immigrant students to receive Cal Grants and other state financial aid. A law that went into effect a year earlier gives students access to privately funded financial aid funneled through public institutions.

Another law gives DACA recipients access to California driverās licenses.

Italia Garcia, 24, said that, before she became eligible for Cal Grants in 2013, she struggled to pay tuition at UC Riverside. She skipped one quarter because she couldnāt come up with the money, and during other quarters, she was working two jobs for as many as 60 hours a week while attending classes.

The financial aid also allowed Garcia, who has lived in the United States since she was 10, to spend the fall 2013 quarter in an internship in Sacramento. She said her internship with a nonprofit group wouldnāt have been possible without DACA, because she couldnāt have afforded to take time off work.

Anti-illegal-immigration activists strongly criticized the new state laws. They said the state shouldnāt make life easier for people living illegally in the United States.

After the law granting the immigrants access to state-funded financial aid went into effect, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, said in a statement that the law is "an insult to every taxpaying citizen, and to every California student."

"We should reward those who respect our process instead of creating new incentives for those who don't," he said.

But Koatzin Cruz of Riverside said he was only 11 months old when he crossed the Mexican border into the United States.

He has spent five years in community colleges preparing to transfer to Cal State Dominguez Hills because, without access to financial aid for most of that time and only a low-paying job, he couldnāt afford to attend classes year-round.

Financial aid and a job at a sit-down restaurant that allowed him to earn more than double what he made at a Jack-in-the-Box means he can work fewer hours and spend more time studying, bringing him closer to his ultimate goal of a PhD.

Cruzās DACA work-authorization card also has served as identification until he gets his driverās license.

Before receiving the card, he wasnāt able to use his debit card a few times because of the lack of a picture ID that stores accepted. Now he has no problem.

Joel Hernandez of Perris, who arrived in the United States at age 11, said that before receiving his driverās license āI was afraid of going out into the streets. I was afraid of being pulled over.ā

Now he offers to give rides to his dad, who is undocumented and doesnāt have a driverās license.

āItās hard because here in Perris, you see the Border Patrol every day on the streets,ā Hernandez said. āTheyāre patrolling like police cars. Even though I have the protection, itās really difficult for my parents. I think what would happen to them if we get pulled over.ā

Ivan Rosales has used his California driverās license to make purchases with his credit card, open a bank account, prove his age in bars and restaurants and establish telephone service.

āHaving an ID has been incredible,ā said Rosales, who last month graduated from New York University with a masterās degree in bioethics.

Rosales is planning to work for a year and enter medical school in the fall of 2015. But he realizes there is no guarantee he will be able to work as a doctor in the United States. DACA is a temporary measure, and no one knows whether the next president will decline to renew it.

Rosales said he would work as a doctor abroad if necessary. But heād rather return to the Inland Empire, which has a severe shortage of doctors, especially of people like him who speak both Spanish and English.

āI identify strongly with that community and I grew up there,ā he said. āAnd thereās so much need. I feel like someone like me with the skills Iām hoping to have in the future can bring so many benefits to the community there.ā

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